This invention relates to a weight measuring arrangement for weighing the food loads carried on a cooking appliance surface unit.
Cooking appliances such as hotplates, cooktops, and electric ranges typically have one or more surface unit heating elements for heating foods and liquids contained in utensils which are placed on the surface units.
Knowledge of the weight of the food load to be heated by a surface unit of a cooking appliance such as an electric range would be useful to the food preparer in a number of ways, including verification of proper ingredient quantities and determining cooking times. However, in presently available cooking appliances, the user must estimate weight or use a separate weight measuring device to obtain such information. A weighing device which enables the surface unit to function as a scale platform provides an attractive convenience to the user. In addition to determining the initial weight information, food weight information measured as the food is heated by the surface unit may be used to control the cooking process by varying the power level or possibly by automatically adjusting cooking times as the weight of the food load changes during the cooking process. The requirements for a satisfactory system for this latter purpose include relatively high accuracy to measure relatively small changes in weight, which accuracy is not adversely affected by subjecting the weight sensors to relatively large temperature swings.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a weight measuring arrangement which measures the weight of food loads placed on a cooking appliance surface unit.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a weight measuring arrangement of the aforementioned type which is capable of determining the food load weight during the cooking process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a weight measuring arrangement of the aforementioned type which is capable of detecting relatively small changes in weight and which is relatively unaffected by changes in temperature from room temperature to the relatively high temperatures in the region proximate the energized surface unit.